· OPEN ·

[carmesi]

Who: Wanda Maximoff, featuring others
When: July 22-August 5
Where: Solvunn and Horizon
What: Catch-all for Wanda's Sadbatical; closed starters within. Her magic is doing some messing around within Horizons, but this is opt-in! It's not happening throughout, and only when she is present in the Horizon.
Warnings: Grief, guilt, shame, mild-suicidal thoughts, Multiverse of Madness themes, TBA

[it has been a week since wanda removed herself from gardsbruk farm and found a place to isolate herself in—a small woods hedging the border of solvunn. the journey there had been fraught with substantial pause, and, at times, she felt she couldn't breathe. all she remembers is sitting in the darkhold castle atop wundagore mountain and forcing it to fall, its destruction surrounding her, the fury of her mistakes heavy stone. to be back here, now, it's not mercy.

wanda wishes she were dead.

her first week away, exiled to this far-off forest, she's set up a hex in it. slowly, as the days went by, the hex became smaller and smaller, until it encompasses a small portion towards the center of it. at first glance, it seems inconsequential, nothing of note to be seen, but an individual more adept at magic would see that its placid visage is interrupted by the back-and-forth of red static. anyone attempting to enter it would be rejected, expelled immediately.

the days go past without her taking any conscious recollection of them. magic bursts forth from her, her sorrow, her shame inclement against her psyche. it isn't long before she starts confusing reality with delusion, in this state, in her own isolation—she tries eating because her body demands it, but she can't seem to keep anything down, water from the stream that goes past the only thing keeping her mildly aware of her circumstances. and as she stares at the stars, and the sun, and the moon, past the canopy of the trees, her eyes blur the images she sees.

finding herself barefoot, she walks the trail of trees, the silence deafening. the leaves under her feet crunch and break. unbeknownst to her, her magic trails along with her, a mind of its own, subsuming different domains in red. it remains so, until she blinks back awake into the real world, an ache in her throat. her scarlet magic pulses again in tired exhaustion, her screams unheard within her self-imposed jail.]

Comments

[techmaturgy]

[She shows him her hands and his brow furrows in concern, but he doesn’t know what it means, or if this is just something she’s manifesting in the Horizon. Regardless, it’s real enough for her, so he can’t brush this off as something that’s simply haunting her subconscious.

The good news is that she offers him something he can do, and he holds his hand out for her. Unhindered by his illness, he’s able to stand with ease and pull her up with him.]

Of course. [He doesn’t feel like he being very reassuring, but he offers her a small smile anyway.] Come with me.

[carmesi]

[sometimes, the most powerful magical being of her universe just needs gentle reassurance and to be told what to do. simple, easy instructions, highlighted by a small smile. it probably helps that the way he speaks is reminiscent of gentler, more nostalgic threads of memories she has to dig deep through layers of trauma to recall.

wanda takes his hand, hesitant at first, but her grip is firm when she does take it, pulling herself up onto the dome of the rocks viktor is keeping himself from treading water.

she nods, trusting him.]

[techmaturgy]

[He doesn't rush her, not wanting to lose the progress they seem to be making. Whatever has happened to her, she seems afraid, and Viktor isn't about to set her off with a misplaced word or step. For now, he simply acts as something solid that she can lean against.

Viktor guides her across the little grotto, over slippery rocks and up the slope out of the cave. He takes his time, both because he's a little slow (even in the Horizon, with the worst of his ailments gone), and because he doesn't want to startle her. Eventually, however, they emerge at the bottom of the fissure--the base of the wall.

It's deep, still--a long way up to Viktor's overlook and then the lab, but the sun streams down into the canyon despite it all, dancing off the water.]

[carmesi]

[the pace is perfect enough for wanda who, despite being abled bodied, finds insecurity in herself like tremors that threaten to startle her off balance. the world fractures itself away from the darkness, into a series of pastel colors that intersperse unto each other, as they reach the base of the wall and out into space much, much more open than where they were before.

there's the overlook—and as wanda glances up at it, she remembers sitting there before, talking with viktor about a different but familiar life, growing under the circumstances they had, and the golden glow of the sun. the warm oranges and carmine and yellows.

her hold on his hand tightens and her breathing steadies.

this much might be enough, denoted by the words that move forward past her cracked lips.]

Thank you.

[darkness will never not be close to her, and wanda sighs, closing her eyes as she lets it all enrapture her. for a moment there is stillness, and the next she emulates that which gave her a sense of reprieve before: slowly the reprieve gained from the thought that her pain would be no more. turning to ash, awakening slowly from the reverie that's thrown her into the horizon in the first place, the squeeze of her hand on his giving way—

cast away, awakening to the canopy of trees back in solvunn, breathing easy, at the rays of the sun that settle over the leaves, tickling her skin.

thank you, and she had meant it, some of the tightness in her chest easing, if just for however long the sun remains in the sky on this day.]